starless & flamed
by hydratedbee
Summary: "I-I can't return those feelings. I'm sorry, I-" She couldn't hear another word. Nalu, oneshot, AU.


_I couldn't help myself, I'm sorry! I'm just in a creative mood. I really hope you like it. ^-^ This is my very first story on here._

* * *

 _ **Starless & Flamed**_

The day she confessed to him, he froze, he wasn't expecting for her to just come right out and say it.

She was timid, and very small, holding a small box tied with a white ribbon-a small heart-shaped card taped down on the little box.

He remembers exactly what he said to her.

..

..

 _"..I, I really like you, Natsu..." she said quietly, heart pounding against her ribcage, she swore that he could hear it._

 _He froze, ears burning, she-she liked him? She liked him? Natsu stared at the small girl in front of him. They had been close friends for sometime now. But he wasn't expecting this._

 _He gave her an apologetic smile, rubbing the back of his neck. "I appreciate the gift." He said awkwardly, "I really do." He then locked his eyes onto her. His olive eyes unreadable. "But, I-I can't return those feelings. I'm sorry, I hope we can still be friends."_

 _She blinked at him, cheeks red, before she smiled sadly. "I understand. At least you gave me an answer, ne?" She joked, her laugh sounding a little bit bitter which he didn't like at all. "Please keep the gift." She said._

 _"L-"_

 _"I'm sorry, but I have to go!" She started to back up, before running away on the spot._

 _Natsu stayed in his spot, hands holding onto the decorated box tightly. She slowly disappeared from his vision, he could no longer see her golden blonde hair anymore._

 _He picked up the card, reading her elegant handwriting._

 ** _To Natsu Dragneel,_**

 _.._

 _.._

He shakes his head, not wanting to bring that up again. It has been almost two years since she made that confession. Them both being their freshman year. Two years, since she had last spoken to him. Two years since she had smiled.

Right now, she is sitting outside, under the blossom tree. Her face is buried in the book she is reading, eyes tracing over every word. Her facial expressions were cute to him.

Why did he-

His hand is squeezed, knocking his thoughts away from him. He looks down seeing the small pale hand, fingers laced in between his.

"Is something wrong, Natsu?" Her innocent voice reaches his ears.

He shakes his head, once again, giving his trademark grin. He glances at the blonde one more time, this time she catches his gaze. Green eyes boring into her doe brown ones. Her eyes narrow, snapping her book shut, she gets up and leaves to go inside the building.

"Nothing at all." He mutters. He shouldn't even think about her now. "Look, Lis. I gotta go, I'll see you later." Swiftly kissing the white-haired beauty on the cheek, his hand slips from hers and he follows where the blonde disappeared to.

He doesn't know why, but he really wants to talk to her.

His long strides lead him to her, as she slightly slows down to stop in front of the library.

"Lucy!" He calls.

She whirls around, eyes wide. She quickly gains her composure and stares at the pink-haired male. He isn't able to read her eyes, nor her emotions. He is glad that he has her attention.

He straightens up, and grins. "Long time no see!"

She flinches at his cheerfulness. But nods, her smile doesn't reach her eyes. He doesn't like it. "Yes it has."

The air is thick between the two. Natsu honestly has nothing to say.

So he takes a step forward, "Lucy." He frowns when her gaze is somewhere else, "can we talk?"

"We're talking now aren't we?" Her voice is light.

He frowns, "That's not what I mean."

Her heart beats frantically, but she takes a step back. "I'm sorry, Natsu but I have to go." Before he can say anything she runs down the hall.

He stays there.

Alone.

..

..

Lisanna is laughing at what Natsu had said. Her cheeks are dancing with red. She feels happy that Natsu is with her. Alone, for a matter of fact.

"You're so stupid." She laughs, making him grin in return.

Something about that makes him think of Lucy, but he doesn't say anything.

Lisanna leans against him, white hair curled around her chin. "Say, Natsu?"

He hums, letting her know that he is paying attention to her.

Her cheeks are painted with red as she looks down twiddling her fingers. "I was wondering if you wanted to go to dinner with me...just the two of us."

He raises his eyebrow. It is about time he should spend with his girlfriend. He opens his mouth to respond, but sees a blonde hair run across his vision. "Let me get back to you on that!" He gets up abruptly, and chases the blonde.

She seems to be in a hurry. "Luce wait!" He shouts.

The blonde is only a few steps ahead of him. Thanks to her short steps, and his long legs he is able to catch up to her. He grabs her wrist and spins her around. "What's the hurry?" He says, smiling.

She tilts her head to the side, "Shouldn't you be with Lisanna? I saw you two together." Her heart clenches knowing that those two are together. Lucy wants to be happy for them, but for some reason she can't.

Natsu doesn't let go of her wrist, and gives it a small squeeze. "Can we talk?"

She opens her mouth, but he quickly cuts her off, "Please, Lucy."

She nods, "Alright."

..

..

He watches her pull on a loose blonde strand and tuck it behind her ear. She doesn't look at him. "So, what did you want to talk about?"

He sighs, looking at her. "Can we..." he sighs once more, trying once again with his words. "Can we try to be friends again?"

She freezes.

He wants to-

He wants to be friends again?

Does he not know?

"Please, Luce." He notices her hesitation, taking her hand in his and giving it a comforting squeeze. "It's been two years since you've ignored me. I missed hanging out with you."

"I don't know if I can..." she stares at him. His ears go red, it's been a while since she has looked at him. Her long thick lashes brushing against her skin.

"Two years." He reminds her loudly. "Two years."

Her eyes soften.

"Please.."

"Alright, I'll try."

And she's the only one that knows.

..

..

Natsu and Lucy have been spending quite sometime together now.

She joins the them for lunch, and everyone likes her.

She is very nice.

So why does she feel jealous?

Lisanna clenches her fist under the table as she watches Natsu play with Lucy's hair.

The grin on his face is brighter, and bigger than the ones he has ever gave her.

And even though, Lucy is yelling at him, Lisanna can tell that Lucy doesn't seem to mind. "Well I should probably start heading home." Lucy says, swatting the irritating boy away from her hair.

"It was nice hanging out with you, Lucy!" Erza smiles, still eating her noodles.

"Yeah." Gray nods. "We need to hang out again."

Natsu pouts, "Why do you always have to be the first to leave."

Lucy giggles and pinches his cheek. "Don't be such a baby. I'll see you later."

"At least let me walk you home."

"Nope!" She is flattered by the offer, she really is. But she can't get too attached to him. She doesn't want what happened two years ago to happen again.

Lisanna eyes the girl.

Erza sets down her bowl and wipes her mouth, "Natsu you will walk, Lucy home."

"But Natsu you said you were going to walk me home." Lisanna interjects.

Natsu thinks for a second and nods, "Oh yeah." Did he forget so easily?

The scarlet beauty watches the three, "Well I don't see why you all can't walk together."

Lucy sighs, giving up, "Okay, I guess."

"Alright!" Natsu pumps a fist in the air. "Come on Luce!" He grabs her wrist and drags her out of the Ramen shop. Lisanna quietly trailing behind them.

Lucy has her hands clasped behind her back, humming to herself. Natsu is smirking, walking closely behind. "Hurry up, Lisanna." He calls after his girlfriend.

She jogs up to them, immediately by Natsu's side and laces her fingers with his.

Lucy glances back, noticing that the two have their hands together. She doesn't want to make a big deal out of it, but she does. "Well here's my stop!" She says, she is so thankful that she convinces Natsu to walk her halfway home. Although he argued about it, he finally agreed.

Natsu frowns, "Are you sure you don't want me to walk you all the way?"

Lucy nods. "I'm sure! Goodbye, Lisanna. Goodbye Natsu." She waves and continues her walk far away from them.

Lisanna literally has to tug Natsu in the other direction, because he is glued to his spot.

And she continues walking. Even though Natsu is physically there-

she feels alone.

..

..

 _"Luce, you're such a weirdo." Natsu chuckled, watching the blonde run around her bedroom searching for something._

 _Lucy huffed, placing her hands on her hips. "Don't make me kick you, Mr. Dragneel."_

 _He grinned, rolling his green eyes at her half-hearted threat._

 _"Ah-ha~!" Lucy cheered as she found what she is looking for._

 _Natsu stared at the black thing in her hand, "What is that?"_

 _Her cheeks are bright red, like apples, she walked forward. "Give me your wrist." She demanded._

 _Although he wanted to question her, he does what he is asked. He watched intensely as the blonde slipped on the black bracelet, with a dark red fairy symbol on it. "There!"_

 _"What is it for?" He asked rotating his wrist to get a better look at his new gift._

 _She pulled out the necklace that her sweater was hiding, the silver had the same fairy symbol, except it was pink. "So we can continue to stay friends, forever!" She smiled at him shyly._

 _Natsu continued to stare at his gift, then looking at the blonde's necklace, before meeting her face. He grinned widely, "I love it, Luce. Natsu and Lucy until the end."_

 _She sighed in relief, pressing her hand to her heart, just his words made her heart beat fast._

 _Then she trailed off into her own thoughts. Would they continue to be friends forever? What did-_

 _"Oi, weirdo what's with that face, are you constipated?"_

 _Her left eye twitched-_

 ** _WHACK!_**

 _"AH SHIT LUCY WHAT WAS THAT FOR?"_

 _"FOR SAYING SOMETHING STUPID!"_

 _"I WAS JUST SAYING THAT-FUCK STOP HITTING ME!"_

 _"APOLOGIZE!"_

 _"I'M SORRY!"_

 _"LUUUUUCEEEEEEEEE!"_

 _"Heh."_

 _.._

 _.._

Why did that memory come into his mind? He sits on the couch, barely paying attention to the movie that is currently playing.

No, he is more focused on the girl curled up in his side.

Natsu loves how her emotions are clear on her face when she watches movies. Her hand full of popcorn hardly ever getting to her mouth as she is so focused on the movie.

"I love this movie." Lucy says after some time.

"Yeah?" Natsu asks, his head resting on her chin.

"Yeah, because the main character dies in the end."

Honestly, he has no idea on what's going on. He wasn't paying attention, and even when she tried to explain it to him, his mind drew a blank. His phone vibrates in his pocket, but he doesn't answer.

He knows Lucy assumes that he will, because she tenses up, but he stays there, arm behind her. Natsu wants some popcorn, his hand slides down in the small bowl he got from his kitchen.

But his hand brushes up against something soft.

He realizes that it's Lucy's hand.

Neither of them remove their hands, it is actually Natsu who curls his fingers, grasping onto Lucy's. She gasps, and looks at him.  
Green locks onto brown, neither of them looking away.

The movie is forgotten.

Lisanna is forgotten.

Their faces are inches apart from each other. His eyes flicker down to her plump lips before going back to her eyes. Silently asking for permission. When she doesn't say no or make a motion that she isn't comfortable with this, he closed the gap.

At first it was sweet and shy, his lips brushing against her softly.

Their stomachs churn.

The kiss gets heated.

Somehow it ends up with the popcorn bowl knocked on floor, Lucy's fingers playing with Natsu's blushed-colored locks, and Natsu's hands moving all around the girl's back.

His lips slant over hers, breaking apart for just a second, before one of them couldn't take it anymore and pulls the other back for another kiss.

Both of them pull away, breathing heavy. Natsu pecks her lips. They just stare into each others' eyes.

 _Natsu was just now my first kiss._

Lucy's finger traces over her bottom lip, cheeks dark red.

 _Wait..._

She stands up quickly, pulling away from him. "Luce?"

"No!" She cries, hands flinging to her face. "You shouldn't have kissed me!"

He raises his eyebrow, "You kissed me back!"

"And that was a mistake." She snaps, she doesn't know that what she said hurt his feelings, deeply.

She clutches her hair. "...Lisanna.." She murmurs sadly.

Natsu's eyes widen. How could he forget about his girlfriend? He just forgot all about her when he was with Lucy. He forgets about anything, honestly when he is with Lucy. "Lu-"

"I should go." She says heading towards the door.

"Wait no Luce!" He chases after her, he is thankful that she has short legs while he has really long ones.

She opens the door, sadly looking at him, "Forget about it Natsu. It was the heat of the moment. It was a mistake." She slams the door behind her.

He stands there, alone.

..

...

 _It wasn't a mistake to him._

 _.._

 _.._

It's been days since Lucy has talked it him. In fact, he hardly sees her at all.

He only catches at glance at her, because she runs the other way every time she sees him.

During class, when he tries to get her to talk to him, she doesn't respond.

She no longer joins them for lunch.

"I miss, Lucy." Loke pouts.

"Yeah," Gray nods, "I wonder why she stopped having lunch with us."

"Did we frighten her?" Levy asks.

Gajeel shakes his head, "I don't think Bunny-Girl would be scared of us."

"Bunny-Girl?" Levy raises her eyebrow.

"She looks like a bunny."

Erza eats her strawberry cake, moaning at the delicious taste. "We can not hate her for her decision."

Gray crosses his arms, "We never said we hated her. It's just weird without her."

Natsu is quiet the whole time. Although the group doesn't really notice, Lisanna notices.

"She's been really quiet."

"I wonder what happened."

"She looks so sad..."

He couldn't take it anymore. "ME!" He shouts, standing up glaring at all his friends. "She left because of me!"

"Why?"

"Because-" There is no going back. His friends needed to know the truth as well.

 _"Because I kissed her!"_

 _.._

 _.._

 _"Lucy!"_

He sees her heading to her next period, she turns, realizes it is him and walks faster. Natsu growls at this and sprints after her. His hand catches her wrist, stopping all her movement.

"Let go!" Lucy snaps at him.

He narrows his eyes as she tries to tug her wrist from him. His grip tightens, threatening to bruise her skin, even though they both know he would never do that.

"No."

"Stop it Natsu!"

"You stop!"

He is glad that the hallway is empty. He yanks her back hard to his chest, his other arm wrapping around her stomach to keep her from breaking free. "Talk to me, Luce." He says sadly, his lips touching her hair.

"P-please." She says sadly, voice hoarse, he knows she is going to cry. And he hates that he is the reason she is about to cry. "Please just stop. It was a mistake-"

"It wasn't a mistake to me." He whispers.

Her eyes widen as she shakes, "Don't stay that-"

"It's true."

"No it isn't, it was just the heat of the moment-"

"You can't try to convince me it wasn't." He pauses before adding, "Didn't it mean anything to you?"

The blonde's breath is shaky. "Stop."

"Luce."

"Natsu please let go..."

"I will if you answer." He is stubborn.

"...I-it did mean something to me, Natsu...you should have already known, it's been two years and I can't stop my feelings." The tears slid down her cheeks. "I love you. And I really wish I didn't-so I wouldn't have to go through this pain."

He lets go. "Lucy-"

She nods, wiping her eyes, "That's right, Natsu. I am Lucy Heartfilia. I am not your girlfriend, I am not Lisanna." She turns away and runs to the bathroom.

She leaves him alone again.

..

He has no words.

..

..

 _"We need to talk."_

That sentence always made everyone think about what they have done wrong. This sentence always brought anxiety.

And that's exactly what Lisanna feels.

She wrings her hands, they're very clammy. She is nervous and scared.

She wonders what Natsu wanted to talk about.

The white-haired beauty walks in front of her boyfriend who is sitting on the park bench. He is wearing baggy clothes. He doesn't notice she is there until she clears her throat.

"You made it." He breathes out.

"Yeah," she says finding her voice, "I did. So what did you want to talk about."

He licks his dry lips.

"I'm sorry-"

"What for?"

"I kissed, Lucy." He says. He is not sad for kissing Lucy, but he is ashamed that he did it while dating Lisanna. He wasn't the type of guy to cheat.

Lisanna blinks. She wants to ask if it was a joke, but his face is serious. His face is hardly ever like that. She doesn't cry, at least not yet. "T-That's okay." Her voice breaks. "...I'm hurt...that you..." She honestly can't find words to say, "Just...why Natsu?"

"Because I love her." He says easily.

He gets up and hugs Lisanna. His chin resting on hers. "I'm sorry, Lis. I didn't mean to hurt you. I promised I wouldn't and I did."

Breaking up is very hard to do. But she figures he wasn't happy in their relationship. His eyes never lit up like it did when he talked about Lucy. "Why her?" She mumbles.

He pulls away, looking up, grinning. "Because she's just Lucy."

She tilts her head in question.

"She's a weirdo, that's all I can say."

She shakes her head, she can't help but giggle. She is sad that her and Natsu are no longer. But it was better to see him happy. Lisanna sighs, "You really love her don't you."

Natsu nods. "I do."

She breaks down crying, but she gives him the biggest smile he has ever seen. "Then what are you doing here?! Go be with her!"

The pink-haired boy grins, his lips brushing against her cheek one last time. "Thank you, Lis." He says before he takes off. Maybe the blonde is still at the school. He still has time.

Lisanna wraps her arms around herself chuckling bitterly. It wasn't her love story. He was her Romeo, but she wasn't his Juliet. "I wonder if I'll find someone one day." She whispers, wiping the tears from her eyes.

..

..

"Lucy!" He pants out her name. He squats low in front of her, hands on his knees, trying to catch his breath.

Lucy grips her bag tighter, staring at him with curiosity. "Natsu...are you alright?" she asks, concerned.

He doesn't respond, but raises his wrist eye in the air. The black wrist band catches her attention. She gasps out loud.

"I didn't forget. You still have your necklace right?"

She nods, showing him the jewelry around her neck.

He stands up now, fully calmed down, and steps forward. "Do you remember what I said that day?" He doesn't want her to actually answer. Rhetorical question. He grins, "I said that day, 'Natsu and Lucy until the end'."

She nods, "What does this have to do with anything?"

He steps closer, thankful that she hasn't moved back. "Do you remember the day you confessed?"

She sucks in her breath. Why did he have to bring it up. "Yes." She swallows painfully.

Another step.

"Do you remember what I said."

She shakes her head, she knows what he said. Word for word, but she doesn't want to say anything.

He grins, "I said that I couldn't return your feelings and that I wanted to remain friends-"

"You don't need to remind me." She interrupts harshly.

He steps closer, "But I do."

"Because if I don't,"

"You won't realize,"

He is fully in front of her, hands on her waist. "That I was wrong."

She gasps, trying to figure out what he is trying to say. "W-what?"

"I was wrong, Luce. I couldn't return those feelings, because I already gave them to you. I didn't realize it. I hurt you. Those two years without you were hell, and I know me dating Lisanna wasn't making anything better. I don't plan on going another two years without you."

She breaks the gaze, "What about Lisanna."

He blinks, "I broke up with her." He says without missing a beat.

"What?! Why? You two were so happy together!"

"She wasn't you." Grinning, he pulls her a little bit closer, "How can I be with her if I love someone else?"

"Y-you love someone."

He pinches her cheek, "Yeah, you, you weirdo." His cheeks are flushed. "I know you will probably say no, but I can't help but feel this way about you. I really love you, Luce. And I want-"

He doesn't finish his sentence as she presses her face against his chest, crying. "You don't know how long I waited for you to say that." Her voice is mumbled, but he can hear her clearly. He wraps his arms around her tighter, and kisses her forehead.

Still grinning like Cheshire cat.

..

..

The weekend is finally over. The students are groaning that it is Monday. Mondays means a lot of homework.

Except for the two.

They smile as they enter the building.

He squeezes her hand to get her attention.

She squeezes right back and looks at him, beaming brightly.

Hand in hand.

 _They were together_.

..

..

* * *

 _Well finally here it is! This took a very long time. A lot of days, and a lot of planning actually. What did you think? I'd love to know. Please review, it'll let me know if you actually like me stories. Thank you. (:_

 _Make a wish_

 _~Aspen-in-wonderland_


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